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the-pi-guy on 23 May 2022
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Runa216 said:

Maybe I'm just in the minority here, but I really don't see much reason to go back to PS1/2 games. Not to say they can't be good, and I'm CERTAINLY not a graphics whore (the games I play the most lately outside of Elden Ring are pixel platformers like Terraria, The Messenger, Shovel Knight, and Kaze and the Wild Masks...you know, stuff like that), but like, N64, PS1, and PS2 games have not held up. Every time I go back to them I think, "Man, these games are a lot better in my memory than they actually are." SNES games held up. Gamecube games held up. NES games mostly hold up. Genesis games mostly hold up. A lot of old games hold up, but a lot of games from the 5th and 6th generation of consoles (The PS1 and PS2 era, alongside N64, Gamecube, and original Xbox) really haven't held up well at all. They just feel like inferior, clunky versions of better games.

Heck, most PS3 and Xbox 360 games haven't held up all that well, either. Nintendo seems mostly immune to this problem (Outside of N64, in my opinion.)

I dunno, I like the IDEA of backwards compatibility and back to the immediately prior generation is a must for conversion, but anything prior to PS4 just gets progressively less and less fun to play today.

GBA being backwards Compatible to GB was perfect. DS being backwards compatible to GBA but not GB was perfectly fine. 3DS being backwards compatible with DS but not GBA was perfectly fine. Wii being backwards compatible with Gamecube was perfect. WiiU being backwards compatible with Wii was perfectly fine. PS5 being backwards compatible with PS4 was perfectly fine. Xbox Series X being backwards compatible all the way back to the original Xbox is GREAT, but I'd love to see the stats on who actually plays Jade Empire on a Series X.

I figure the first 6 months of this new PSNow with Backwards Compatibility all the way back to PS1 will have a tonne of attention, but after that I just don't see anyone caring. I'd be happy to be wrong, I just don't think that's the case. They've said before that BC is something everyone wants but by their metrics few people actually play it, the people who do are just VERY loud.

I personally don't agree that PS2 games haven't held up well.

There are some PS2 games that I routinely come back to. Most notably the Jak games. It's not like the visuals are amazing, or even good for that matter, but I don't issue with them or the gameplay.

PS1 era is a bit weird for me. I didn't really play many PS1 games, I played more Nintendo 64, which still wasn't a lot. But I find N64 games more notably pleasing today. 

I feel like more PS1 games tried to punch above where they really should have visually, and I feel like it didn't work.

There are some N64 games that I think look much more appealing than this.

I think a bigger point of BC is when the games or genres have kind of disappeared today. If there were new and amazing Jak and Daxter games today, I probably wouldn't even think about the old ones. A genre in specific that I feel isn't being as pushed today are JRPGs. There are so many decent JRPGs that were being released on the PS2, like Dark Cloud, Radiata Stories, that just don't have modern equivalents. And in general, there don't seem to be as many JRPGs on newer PlayStations in general.